Colorado Storms See Baseball-Sized Hail Stones Smash Windows

A number of strong storms that brought "monster" tornadoes to Colorado have seen baseball-sized hail stones break windows and, in one instance, may have broken the state record for size.

Tornado warnings were in place for Yuma County, a rural area to the west of Denver, on Tuesday, with the National Weather Service (NWS) urging residents to seek shelter shortly after 5 p.m. local time (7 p.m. ET). Surrounding areas also faced a severe thunderstorm warning, with winds of up to 60 miles an hour.

It said in an earlier forecast it expected "severe storms" late into the evening with "destructive hail," but expressed "uncertainties" about the extent and development of the weather pattern.

Meteorologists at the agency later documented hail of up to three inches in diameter.

One storm chaser, Dakota McGee, posted images online of the "very severe hail" she had recovered 14 miles south of Yuma, a small municipality, showing various examples of the comparable size to a four-inch softball, while others were slightly larger than a golf ball.

But hail much larger may have fallen—potentially besting Colorado's previous record of 4.83 inches and 8.5 ounces set in August 2019.

Dan Fitts, another storm chaser, shared an image of a hail stone he said had been recovered on Highway 36, around eight miles from Kirk, which sits to the south of Yuma, with a Vernier gauge recording its diameter as around 5.3 inches at its widest point.

The NWS station in Goodland, Kansas, responded by asking him to put the hail stone in a freezer "as soon as possible" as it "may be a new state record," adding that a state climatologist may be called to take an official measurement.

An NWS Goodland spokesperson told Newsweek on Wednesday that the hailstone was now being stored in a freezer "pending the Colorado state climatologist coming out and certifying the size," which they said "should be relatively soon."

"Once we know for sure, we will issue an announcement," they added.

"Beautiful tornado west of Yuma, Colorado! Lost my back windshield while in intense [rear flank downdraft] and tennis ball sized hail," Alex Resel, another storm chaser in the area wrote above pictures of a tornado in the distance and the smashed window.

A rear flank downdraft is a pocket of cooler, dryer air that can come off a tornado and which can be caused by hail.

Meanwhile, Jordan Hall, an extreme storm chaser, posted a video of an "absolute monster" of a tornado near Yuma. In the footage, the twister can be seen curling across a field on a backdrop of dark grey clouds.

In another shot, a much larger tornado coated in gyrating dust can be seen crawling over a road. "My goodness," Hall wrote.

The NWS station for Denver and Boulder said in its latest forecast that it now expects storm coverage to decrease across the region, and the severe thunderstorm watches to expire.

However, it also noted that severe thunderstorm watches would remain in place for parts of eastern Colorado, as well as northwest and central Kansas, through Tuesday night.

Tornado season runs from May through to August in Colorado. In May, numerous twisters were witnessed across the northeast of the state during another severe thunderstorm.

Update 08/09/23, 11:46 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include comment from an NWS Goodland spokesperson.